top of page
Wright's Writing
Search


"Journal of a Dissenter," 1996-2024
Probably unwisely, I've posted my lifelong intellectual journal online, specifically on Google Books . It's a very long document that no...
Jul 2, 20242 min read


Classical music vs. mediocrity
On one side is the mediocrity of all functionaries. All bureaucrats. There’s no point in my writing about bureaucrats in the ordinary...
Jul 30, 20227 min read


Against liberal "pluralism"
In the time of Trumpism, Michael Paul Rogin’s great book The Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter (1967) shouldn’t be as...
Jul 10, 202115 min read


Critical remarks on academia and philosophy
I was recently skimming old notes of mine and came across the following thoughts from a two-volume book on "humanism" I wanted to write...
Aug 30, 202037 min read


The remarkable perversity of idealism
Many years ago, when I was a simple boy who thought he ought to know a lot about Hegel, I took masses of notes on his philosophy. Below...
Aug 27, 202021 min read


Thou shalt not worship intellectuals
When I read old books or articles that are totally forgotten despite being brilliant, it saddens me. Siblings of Donald Trump publish...
Aug 25, 20209 min read


The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 1
I'm kind of a "vulgar Marxist." In this respect, I suppose I'm a lot like people in the American ruling class, except that their values...
Aug 23, 202045 min read


I wish stupidity were less common
This is going to be a whiny, self-pitying post. Just to warn you. The question is sometimes asked, "Why are stupid people frequently so...
Aug 21, 20209 min read


Rambling reflections on Camille Paglia
I've been reading Camille Paglia's collection of essays Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992). I disagree with a lot of Paglia's...
Jun 6, 202016 min read

A little misanthropy can be a healthy thing
This is from a letter Sigmund Freud wrote to his pastor friend Oskar Pfister: I do not break my head very much about good and evil, but I...
Jul 24, 201919 min read


What will "the revolution" look like?
Here's a blog post for you masochists who are interested in the debates that go on among Marxist intellectuals over questions around...
Jul 11, 201910 min read


The Destruction of Reason
Just a quick note: I recently posted a long summary of and commentary on Georg Lukacs' masterpiece The Destruction of Reason, which has...
Mar 23, 20181 min read


Collectivism
[Excerpts from this book.] Collectivism comes in both noble and evil forms. In the former, the principle of the individual is paramount;...
Mar 11, 20189 min read


Contemporary philosophy vs. sanity
[The following is a vignette I wrote years ago when studying for my Master's in philosophy. I was taking a class in contemporary...
Jul 29, 20164 min read


Richard Lewontin, Chomsky, and common sense
Richard Lewontin’s article “The Evolution of Cognition: Questions We Will Never Answer” is excellent. It counsels skepticism about...
Jul 20, 20163 min read


Elite pretentiousness
The following is the beginning of an essay I wanted to write years ago on the concept of pretentiousness, a phenomenon the ubiquity of...
Jul 9, 20165 min read


Historians and existentialism
In a sense, writing history is an intrinsically moral activity—although different kinds of history embody different degrees of morality....
May 21, 20161 min read


Economics as class war
Reading the Chomsky-recommended Political Economy and Laissez-Faire: Economics and Ideology in the Ricardian Era (1986), by Rajani Kanth....
Sep 26, 20157 min read


On "The Reactionary Mind"
Reading The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin (2011), by Corey Robin. An elegant and erudite elaboration of...
Sep 25, 20154 min read


Götzendämmerung
Albert Camus: “We [moderns] read more than we meditate. We have no philosophies but merely commentaries. This is what Étienne Gilson...
Apr 15, 20152 min read
bottom of page